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Abstract Achieving large-scale, transformative climate change adaptations in agriculture while mitigating further climate impacts and supporting sustainable and equitable rural livelihoods is a grand challenge for society. Transformation of the agri-food system is necessary and inevitable, but the extent to which transformation can be intentionally guided toward desirable states remains unclear. We argue that instead of targeting leverage points in isolation, coordinated interventions multiple leverage points and their interactions are necessary to create broader system transformation towards more adaptive futures. Using the Southeastern U.S. as a case study, we conceptualize a way of doing transformation research in agri-food systems that integrates multiple theoretical and practical perspectives of how transformative pathways can be constructed from ‘chains’ of interacting leverage points. We outline several principles for transformative research; the core of which are participatory, transdisciplinary, and convergence research methods needed for articulating a shared vision. These principles embrace an action-oriented approach to research in which the act of assembling diverse networks of researchers, stakeholders, and community partners itself can activate community- and regional-level leverage points to scale-up changes. Finally, we present tangible examples of specific leverage points and their interactions targeted by agri-food systems interventions currently underway or planned. This work offers an ‘anticipatory’ vision for agri-food systems transformation research that recognizes the need to normatively create an enabling environment to build momentum toward shared visions of secure, equitable, and sustainable regional agri-food systems.
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Anticipating Climatic Variability: The Potential of Ecological Calendars
Indigenous and rural societies who have contributed least to anthropogenic climate change are facing its harshest consequences. One of the greatest challenges of climate change is lack of predictability, especially at the local scale. An estimated 70-80% of the world’s food is produced by smallholders with less than two hectares of land. These small-scale farmers and herders face an ever-shifting ‘new normal’ climate, increasing inconsistency in the seasonality of temperature and precipitation, and higher frequency of what were once considered extreme weather events. Climate variability is disrupting food systems and generating a debilitating anxiety. Anticipatory capacity – the ability to envision possible futures and develop a plan of action to deal with uncertainties – is needed urgently. Communities and researchers must create innovative systems to recognize and respond to climate trends and prepare for a greater range of possible scenarios. To build anticipatory capacity for climate change, communities need systems that are effective at the scale of the village and valley. In this brief communication we suggest a new approach for applied participatory action research to build anticipatory capacity for climate change. Specifically, we describe the development of ecological calendars that integrate indigenous knowledge and scientific data, and therefore require input from both communities of inquirers and communities of practice. We provide a case study of our ongoing work in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, where we are in the midst of transdisciplinaryresearch with indigenous agropastoralists.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1630490
- PAR ID:
- 10053600
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Human Ecology
- ISSN:
- 0300-7839
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-9970-5
